Corazon, the point about "no good guitar players" parallels similar things I've noticed. We've got several college age interns working in our studio this summer and they've been dominating the iTunes selections pumping through the shop for the last month. Last week I was noticing the paucity of instrumental virtuosity in just about everything they were listening to. (Andrew Bird was pretty much the lone exception.) Of course, the music biz has changed so much. Back in the era of the major labels heydays, they paid for expensive studio musicians to work with artists. Those days are gone, unless you're Beyonce or Justin Timberlake. I think ProTools has had a deleterious effect on a number of aspects of musicianship as well. Somehow, virtuosos have fallen out of favor with the general music listening audience.
